Just weeks into the new Premier League season, the #WengerOut brigade and backers of the Frenchman are starting to clash again amidst the Arsenal fanbase and on the surface, it’s a shame for the club because following the joy of winning a second successive FA Cup last season, the club looked to be on the up once more.
While they may still of course surprise everyone and continue on that upward curve this season, the odds are heavily stacked against them with Arsene Wenger being the only manager in all of Europe’s top five divisions not to bring an outfield player to his club this summer.
Signing Petr Cech was a fantastic start in the window this summer and many believed Wenger was finally starting to wise up to exactly what was required to turn the Gunners into top four qualifiers to real Premier League title winners.
For whatever reason however, the money stayed in the chequebook and many Gunners fans are now absolutely irate that the club appear to be lacking ambition in the transfer market and their subsequent goals.
The simple fact of the matter is that Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool have all further improved their squads and with the Gunners standing still somewhat – not to mention their appalling injury record that has struck again in the case of Danny Welbeck this week – many are expecting the Gunners to fall short yet again.
With a lot of our fans here in the Football Transfer Tavern wishing they could play Arsenal boss during transfer windows, here’s five strikers that Arsenal should’ve aggressively trailed after this past summer window.
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Click on the image below to reveal the 5 strikers Arsenal should have signed this summer.
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Fernando Llorente
We’re going to start with a controversial choice and someone who wasn’t considered good enough to bolster Arsenal’s frontline all summer long but we wonder what Gunners fans think now?
Joining Sevilla from Juventus late in the window on a free transfer, Llorente was deemed by our Gooners as being too similar to Olivier Giroud as a target man while also now being in his thirties but considering the Gunners ended up with nothing, not to mention the injury to Danny Welbeck, shouldn’t Wenger have pushed hard to sign this additional experienced body?
Sevilla have proved a shrewd operator in the transfer market and not so long ago, Arsenal were considered the favourites for Llorente’s signature.
We think that while Arsenal’s chances of signing the likes of Karim Benzema were going stale, they should’ve had their transfer team monitoring Llorente’s situation as a plan B like hawks but there appears to be some incompetency when it comes to the Gunners and transfers.
Karim Benzema
We’ll never know if Arsenal made concrete contact with Karim Benzema behind the scenes this summer but according to the papers and experts such as Thierry Henry, Arsene Wenger would’ve tried to land his French compatriot.
The word ‘try’ seems to be the problem for Arsenal in transfer windows however with Sky Sports News’ yellow breaking news tab not having once informed Gooners that their club had offered a bid to the Spanish giants.
As Paul Merson discussed this week, Benzema probably wanted to stay at Real Madrid anyway this summer given the fact he is playing and the point that Real are probably the biggest club in the world.
That said, it doesn’t appear to be the case that Arsenal were willing to at least disrupt the situation with a £70 million + bid despite according to shareholder Lord Harris, having around £200 million in the bank to splash on transfers.
We’ve seen this summer with Manchester City that despite being told Kevin De Bruyne wasn’t for sale multiple times by Wolfsburg, the Citizens didn’t take no for an answer while eventually completing a £55 million deal for the Belgian superstar.
Wolfsburg aren’t Real Madrid of course but you get the sense that Arsenal need to be far more aggressive when it comes to pursuing world class additions that’d undoubtedly improve and in some cases complete their playing staff.
Jackson Martinez
A player that would’ve surely fitted the bill at Arsenal this summer, Jackson Martinez ended up joining Atletico Madrid from Porto far earlier in the transfer window for just 35 million euros.
We say just because Martinez has already proved that he’s a goalscoring machine during his time in Portugal and when you consider that Manchester United were eventually forced to spend a whopping £36 million on the relatively untried Anthony Martial, surely the value for money was in Martinez?
That said, both United and Arsenal seemed to let Martinez slide earlier in the window and Atletico picked up a player who will undoubtedly shine at the Vicente Calderon this season.
Edin Dzeko
Now while most punters in the bar are of the opinion that Edin Dzeko wouldn’t have been a first choice signing for the Gunners, not to mention the fact Manchester City probably wouldn’t have sold to a Premier League title rival, we’ve seen with Arsenal’s capture of Petr Cech that inter-top four business can indeed still take place.
Deemed surplus to requirements at the Etihad Stadium by Manuel Pellegrini, Bosnian international Dzeko finds himself out on loan at Serie A giants Roma but given Arsenal’s predicament now with only Olivier Giroud, Theo Walcott and Joel Campbell fit as strikers, surely Dzeko wouldn’t have been that bad an addition.
An underrated striker, Dzeko can still do a little bit of everything and if the likes of Arsenal acted far quicker in the summer window, they could’ve potentially picked the former Wolfsburg striker up for a relatively cheap fee compared to the Anthony Martial’s and Douglas Costa’s of this world.
Edinson Cavani
Most heavily linked with a summer switch to Arsenal in the last week preceding deadline day, Edinson Cavani was eventually deemed off limits for the Gunners who failed to complete a reported double deal with Paris Saint-Germain for both he and midfield counterpart Adrien Rabiot.
It would’ve taken around a £50 million bid to disrupt PSG’s stance on selling the Uruguayan striker and given that Arsenal are now far more asset-rich and can spend big as they proved with Mesut Ozil in the past, it’s quite remarkable to think that they didn’t seem to want to go in big for the likes of Cavani.
The Mirror are reporting today that the French champions will listen to January offers for the Uruguayan striker but Arsene Wenger would’ve had to change his penny pinching ways before then to see such a player eventually rock up at Emirates Stadium.
